Technology and Society

1. Technology and Society Class 7: ISM

2. Product & Information Flows Price discovery by word-of-mouth Authorized price Mandi (CAs) ITC Farmer PRE By oxcart; no travel reimbursement Weight measure (payment to farmers) Other buyers Mandi (CAs) Authorized price 50% Soybeans (travel expenses reimbursed) 50% POST ITC Farmer Oil, lamps, seed, etc. Samyojak Market Conditions Prices Sanchalak Internet Weather Best Practices Class 7: ISM

3. Impact and Value Creation • Richness: • Improved information quality • Decreased uncertainty • Increased knowledge • Reach: Increased ITC’s access to more farmers • Disintermediation: Decreased role of mandi intermediaries • Increased process efficiency (e.g. logistics) • Reduced corruption • Enables new options (e.g. to sell other products through the network) VALUE DISTRIBUTED AMONG ALL KEY STAKEHOLDERS Class 7: ISM

4. Starting Point of Analysis McAfee, SMR 2003 Class 7: ISM

5. Key Difficulties • Extremely low IT sophistication of farmers • Farmers very slow to change, very risk averse, but many changes potentially needed • A lot “on stake” by some stakeholders (e.g. CAs?) • Large IT scope, high IT complexity (no existing IT infrastructure), discretionary IT • Logistics problems: physical products are still involved • Trust to ITC and the new “IT way” of working • Legislation constraints • Overall readiness of rural India for IT (how to assess this?) Class 7: ISM

6. Overcoming Risks: Key ITC Strategies Class 7: ISM

7. Assessing National IT Readiness Access Policy Networked Readiness Index Enabling Factors Society Economy World Economic Forum: Global IT Report, 2002 Class 7: ISM

8. Readiness for IT: A Macro View Networked Readiness Index (NRI): The degree to which a community is prepared or has the potential to participate in the networked world (WEF report 2001-2004) • IT infrastructure access: teledensity, PCs per person, waiting time for phone lines (US, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, UK, Germany, Canada, France, Singapore, Italy, Korea, Argentina, Greece, India…) • Policy and regulation : Telecom/ISP competition, security and other IT related laws, legal support for IT business, IT as overall government priority (Finland, Singapore, US, Iceland, Hong Kong, Norway, Germany, France, Japan, Spain, Thailand, Greece, Poland, Latvia, Turkey, India, China, Mexico, Indonesia, Bulgaria…) Class 7: ISM

9. Readiness for IT: A Macro View • Social capital and IT sophistication: Employees IT training, Internet in education, Quality of education (Finland, US, Netherlands, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, UK, Singapore, France, Israel, Japan, Spain, Hong Kong, Poland, Italy, Chile, Portugal…) • IT in economic activities: internet payment possibilities, e-government availability, business IT sophistication, (Finland, US, Sweden, Singapore, Iceland, Germany, Canada…) Class 7: ISM

10. ITC in the News • More than 2.4 million farmers in 21,000 villages through 4,100 e-Choupals (6 new e-choupals per day) • ITC added more commodities (coffee, mustard, etc) and plans to take up trade in chillies and turmeric in collaboration with government agencies • ITC may sell gas via e-choupals in collaboration with BPLC • ITC is planning to set up large-scale supermarkets • ITC wins "World Business award“ by the International Chamber of Commerce and the United Nations Development Programme on May 18 in Paris Class 7: ISM

11. Key Lessons • Key Social Factors for IT Adoption: • The importance of trust • National IT readiness (Infrastructure, Policy/Regulation, IT Sophistication, IT in economic activities) • The standard stakeholder and IT analysis factors (what is on stake, how flexible versus how many changes are needed, scope, IT complexity) • Key Strategies of ITC: • Fit existing social structure and practices, minimize required changes • Use a “community user” model instead of a “single user” model • “Train the trainer” who links to the rest • All involved stakeholders win, stakeholders’ roles are redesigned if needed • Work with the government, consider regulatory constraints • Impact of IT: • Richness (more information and knowledge, less uncertainty) • Reach (more farmers accessible) • Disintermediation • Enable future options • Increase efficiency, decrease corruption • Everyone gains including ITC Class 7: ISM

12. The Top Three.. • It is hard to change the world: • Start by fitting existing social structure and practices to minimize required changes • Let IT change the world later… • People are skeptical about new technology • Assure people trust the new “IT way” of living • Move from a “single user” to a “community user” model Class 7: ISM